Health Department Initiatives Address Gaps in Care, Make Strides to Improve Health of All New Yorkers

In a report issued today, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute rank the nation's counties on various measures of health. As expected, the findings reveal deep health disparities among counties across the U.S., including those in New York state. Whether counties are ranked by "health outcomes" (rates of illness and death) or by "health factors" (characteristics that influence health), counties with large minority populations and high rates of poverty consistently rank least healthy. Among New York City's five counties (boroughs), Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island land relatively high among New York's 62 counties, while Brooklyn and the Bronx fall at or near the bottom.

African-American - News March 31, 2011

CIA IN LIBYA AIDING REBELS. HAVE BEEN IN LIBYA FOR WEEKS(deseretnews)The CIA has inserted clandestine operatives into Libya to gather intelligence for military airstrikes and make contacts with rebels battling Moammar Gadhafi's forces, according to U.S. Officials. While President Barack Obama has insisted that no U.S. Ground troops join in the Libyan campaign, small groups of CIA operatives have been working in Libya for several weeks and are part of a shadow force of Westerners that the Obama administration hopes can help set back Gadhafi's military, the officials said. The CIA presence comprises an unknown number of U.S. Officers who had worked at the spy agency's station in Tripoli and those who arrived more recently. In addition, current and former British officials said, dozens of British special forces and MI6 intelligence officers are working inside Libya. The British operatives have been directing airstrikes from British Tornado jets and gathering intelligence about the whereabouts of Libyan government tank columns, artillery pieces, and missile installations, the officials said.

NAACP says teachers' jobs can be saved(MSNBC)After months of contentious debate over school closings and budget cuts, NAACP officials met with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools leaders Tuesday to give them a proposal the group says could avert school closings and save hundreds of teachers' jobs.

D.C.'s melting majority(Arkansas Online)Over the past decade, the District of Columbia's African American population shrank by more than 39,000. That's a 9 percent drop, according to census data released last week.

Bell silent no longer(Theadvertiser The Advertiser Lafayett...)"For bells are the voice of the church; They have tones that touch and search the hearts of young and old." "' Henry Wadsworth Longfellow More online Click on this story at theadvertiser.com for video of the re-dedication and a photo gallery.